With FWD its hard to do donuts, best to use e-brake. Thats what i did when I went to achicago with my TDI. Her forst and last time seeing snow and there was some salt there and thankfully no rust on my car so far. Anyway Have fun!

PS I dont think I ever can survive doing the oil change in that crazy frigid temp. LOL

I too have been happy when my little car starts in single digit temps. I usually cycle the key three times for about 10 seconds each. This morning it started harder than usual, but she still did. Gives me more confidence in her!

I am in my 4th winter with my TDI. It has never not started. There was one day at -34F when I forgot to plug it in, it did not like it but it started. I don't plug in till 0, and at that its just an oil pan heater and it runs for about an hr to hr half before I fire it up. Planning on a frost fighter install this spring thou. I know she will be alot happier that way. And so will I becuase 10 minutes driving a freezing ass cold car sucks.

One really nice OEM option is the Euro/Canada spec coolant/block heater. It works great here in -40. Tonight it'll be -28C, and I don't think twice about the car even with only 1/4 tank of fuel (and no additive in this tank :P ). I'll plug in the car any time it's going to be lower than -10C overnight. I've left it out in -24C overnight and it started fine but I don't like to tempt fate, nor stress the TDI unless necessary (IE. staying at a hotel, or in a parking lot overnight).

Quote:

Originally Posted by VeeDubTDI

Don't forget to use the proper fuel additive to prevent gelling in cold weather. This seems to be a pretty common problem this year in the eastern half of the US for whatever reason.

Agreed. I use that same additive as well, seem to get 40-50 miles better per tank.

One reason the fuel is likely to gel in the eastern US this year is that they don't typically expect so much cold weather at the refineries, and it takes some time to turnaround the equipment for winterized production. If they weren't planning on it you could be stuck with basically a summer blend.

+1 on the frostheater. I put one on my tdi before moving to Alaska and it worked flawlessly for years, however I never felt I ever really needed it as I never had an issue when I didn't plug it in. But it is nice to have the heater blow warm air right away.